Have you figured out how search engines are social?  Many search engines, like Google and Yahoo, allow people to provide company reviews.  So, if you search for your business in a local search engine, you may see a review of your business.  Give it a try.  You may not have any reviews right now, but just wait.  You will very soon.

How reviews are helpful

For the rest of this article, let’s try searching for “Hotel” and your zip code.  Read the reviews that your local hotels have online.  Many of the reviews come from the search engine, but many also come from other travel sites. When you look at these reviews, you will notice good and bad reviews.  You will also see those reviews that others found helpful.  If you find a review helpful, click “YES.”  That will make the reviews more reliable and helpful to the next person.   Reviews help you make better buying decisions.

reviews

What about bad reviews of my business

you [Read more...]

For this lesson, I have created two videos that you can watch to get a feel for how to create and edit your listing in Google Local.  For those of you that like the step by step instructions, I have included those after the videos.

This lesson will take longer than 15 minutes. Take your time.  Your investment in this setup should be less than one hour, and the benefits will be evident for years to come. Google Maps is considered authoritative, verified information. Other local and yellow pages sites use the information found within Google listings. This leads to more exposure and more business for you. [Read more...]

googlelocalyahoo_local_logomsnLocal search has been around for awhile, but surprisingly, many businesses aren’t aware of how important it can be to securing your online presence and adding value to your potential customers who use this service every day. There is literally an entire generation of people who don’t use the yellow pages*.  So how do they find you?  They go to Google and search for your business with local terms.  For instance, if you are looking for a jeweler, type in “jewelry” and your city & state, or zip code.  If you type in “web designer 55350,”  Vivid Image will come up two out of the three local listings!

A short story about local search success…

[Read more...]

Doing the same thing over and over again is the definition of insanity.  Are you insane?  Is your business enabling you to live out your passions?  Or is it draining the life out of you?

I really believe in taking small steps.  Making small changes daily to improve your business and your life.  Sometimes these changes are outside of your comfort zone.  I know some of the things we have talked about over the last couple weeks have taking you outside your comfort zone.  To continue doing the same thing over and over again is just insanity.  Sometimes we need a kick in the pants and to take a giant leap into the unknown.  Have you ever done that?  Take a giant leap of faith?  Stephen Covey says that to make incremental changes in our business, focus on behaviors.  If you want to make life changes; course altering changes, focus on paradigms. 

Do you know what a paradigm is?

Let me tell you another story to illustrate what a paradigm shift really looks like.  [Read more...]

This is our final day of exploring LinkedIn in this 30 day series on social media and marketing.  I see  several mistakes people make when they start using LinkedIn or any social networking platform.  I want to address those now so you can avoid being just another statistic.

Mistake #1:  Never Completing the Profile

Mario Sundar - ProfileBy know you probably know that you need to get three recommendations to complete your profile.  What is stopping you?  There is no harm in asking for a recommendation.  So let me tell you a little secret on how to get recommendations…..”Give and you shall receive.”  Remember, networking is largely a give/get process.  Be proactive and give recommendations to some of your contacts before they ask.  A simple one or two paragraph recommendation is all that is needed.  Give it a try.  It feels good to praise others, and it will come back to you to fill you with more joy than you can imagine.  REMEMBER:  When someone gives you a recommendation, return the favor!  [Read more...]

When I go about my week, I have about 50 people that I interact with frequently.  From staff, clients, friends, and family – I am comfortable with that number.  Online, (today anyway) I have 178 connections on LinkedIn, 140 friends on Facebook, and 320 followers on Twitter.   Not huge numbers compared to some people.  I have seen users on LinkedIn with 500+ connections, Facebook friends with 500+ friends, and Tweeters with over 100,000 followers. 

linkedinconnectionsI have 178 1st level connections.  But I am connected to over 2.8 million people!  How can that be?  First level connections are those people to whom I am directly connected.  These people can see my entire profile, but also have their own connections whom I may not know.  These people would be considered second level connections.  These second level connections may also be connected a third level of people I don’t know.  The 2.8 million people includes not only my first level, but second and third level connections as well.  People that are not first, second or third level contacts are ”outside of my network.” 

So, is it about Size or Quality?

Anthropologist, Robin Dunbar,  [Read more...]

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful, yet mis-understood tools for building a professional network.  Over the next few days, I am going to change that mis-understanding.  A few small adjustments in your profile and how you use LinkedIn can make this your most powerful professional network. 

What is LinkedIn

linkedinLinkedIn is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world.   When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you.  Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.

Today, lets take a look at creating your profile. [Read more...]

What is RSS? RSS stands for ”Really Simple Syndication.”  It is a method of subscribing to online data, news or updates.  Instead of visiting all your favorite website or blogs everyday to read what’s new, an RSS feed delivers it right to you; like a newspaper on your front door step.  Give you only what is new and relevant to what you want to read.  You can subscribe to blogs, photo updates, video updates, or just about any kind of data that people what to share (or data you want to share.)

Your first step to understanding RSS

[Read more...]

SunbathingWouldn’t it be nice if you could receive an email whenever Google finds out something new about you?  Or when your competitor makes the news?  Or there is a news story developing that affects your  business? Or a customer is blogging about your product? One option would be to go to Google and do a search for these things.  But that is just another task that you need to put on your calendar to get done.  You could have your assistant monitor that for you, but you know that your assistant has better things to do than perform web searches for you and this method doesn’t guarantee that something won’t be missed.

There is an answer!

[Read more...]

Fox 9 News In-Depth: Addiction by Addition

Facebook addicts
Created On: Tuesday, 10 Mar 2009, 6:49 PM CDT
Website:  http://www.myfoxtwincities.com

Either you’re on Facebook or you’re hearing about it from someone who is. Worldwide more than 3-billion minutes are spent on the site everyday as folks use it to track down friends and make new ones. But that doesn’t explain what makes Facebook so addicting. So we decided to “friend” reporter Trish Van Pilsum on her Facebook page, to get the answer.

Watch the video:  [Read more...]

youtube-logoIs there really a way to use YouTube for business? Absolutely. It takes a little time, creativity, and of course, a video camera. More and more businesses are popping up on YouTube and using this social marketing tool in a variety of ways. YouTube’s strongest points of interests are that it’s open to everyone, free to use, have millions of loyal users world-wide, and every video can be tagged with keywords for better search ability.

YouTube is the third most visited website in the US .

To me, good marketers tell stories.  [Read more...]

Social bookmarking will make your life easier.  Del.icio.us, or Delicious as it is referred to, is a wonderful business tool for bookmarking websites.

How is it different than regular “bookmarking”?

delicious_128x128For years people have been bookmarking sites that they want to return to at a later date. The old bookmarking system uses a browser and your bookmarks are tied to the computer you were using at the time. Nowadays, people are shuttling between computers.  Many people have a work computer, home office, lap top, computers at multiple branch offices, etc.  This makes accessing your bookmarked sites very difficult.

If you rely on bookmarks to find the information you need, your work can come to a fast halt. [Read more...]

Today we are going to cover advertising in Facebook.  This is the third and final lesson on Facebook that we are going to cover during this 30 day journey.  

CLYDACH-MARKET-22Advertising is really quite fascinating when you use Facebook.  Let me ask you a question.  Does traditional media, such as newspaper or radio, only charge you to advertise to those people that are interested in your product or service and are in your geographic area?  No, when you advertise in traditional mediums, you pay to advertise to the entire circulation – hoping to those that fit your targeted demographic will see you ad. 

But what if [Read more...]

You can use Facebook to promote your business, start conversations with customers, build brand recognition, and solicit user feedback. It is a growing trend. WOW! Facebook is incredible!

In order to proceed, you must have a personal Facebook page, and we strongly recommend that you are familiar with some of the basic features of the application.  That was the purpose of yesterday.  Now, let’s get started with a business page. We want to make this effort as easy and effective as possible.

154689-facebook_main_originalYou have two free options on Facebook. You can create a Group or a Page for your business. We recommend building a Page, and here’s why. Pages were designed to accommodate viral marketing. Viral marketing is a method of spreading word of your product or service rapidly from one person to another. For business, this is a good thing.

Pages slowly (or quickly in some cases) acquire Fans.  Aretha Franklins’ Hat page acquired [Read more...]

Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.   Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Why be on Facebook?

facebook-friendsFacebook is the 4th most popular website in the United States.  As a business owner, you need to understand it.  There are more than 175 million active users on Facebook – and it is not just for kids anymore.  In fact more than 1/2 of Facebooks users are outside of college, with the fastest growing demographic being those over 30 years of age.  What do those big numbers mean?  [Read more...]

googly eyes

Ever visit a blog or forum and wonder how the other people have their picture showing up along side their post?  Today’s suggestion is one of the fastest social networking tools you can use, called Gravatars, and it’s FREE. This is a simple tool designed to automatically combine your picture with your email on any site, world-wide, that has Gravatar enabled. It is becoming common practice on blogs, forums, or any place that you use your email to post comments. Yahoo groups have been using Avatar for a long time, and Gravatar is a Globally Recognized version!

Why is this important? Anyone in business knows it’s important to [Read more...]

Marketing Should Be Fun

monopoly-e-commerceOne of my favorite marketing coaches is John Jantch with DuctTape Marketing.  He commonly refers to marketing as a game.  John says, “If marketing seems hard to you, why not turn it into a game, with rules, and a way to win.”  There are rules to follow.   But part of the game is identifying those rules, building your strategy, and enjoying the process.  The rewards you will get from the next 30 days may be some of the biggest you have ever received.  I look forward to going on this journey with you.

What is Social Media

Social media is any tool that lets you share information and network with others.  Common tools are:  [Read more...]

Field Notes SurpriseIn just a couple of days we will being a journey together through social media.

There will be a lot of information that we will cover.  Here is a breakdown of the topics that will be covered:

  1. Face It:  What you need to know about Facebook
  2. Using LinkedIn to grow your business
  3. Do you Tweet on Twitter
  4. Harness the power of Blogs
  5. Dominate the Search Engines
  6. Using Email Effectively
  7. Online Video to grow your business
  8. much more…

You don’t want to miss a day.  Go to the Subscribe via Email to receive your “30 Days of Social Media” in your mailbox each day.  You can unsubscribe at anytime.

At the end of the 30 days, I will be publishing an action plan with additional details from the comments you provided. I will only be sending this action plan to the followers of this blog. If you want a copy, please subscribe in the subscribe via email box above.  PS:  This is only the beginning!  Take a sneak peak at what is coming up!

My Fenway perpetual calendarThe next 30 days promise to be very insightful, at times overwhelming, but ultimately rewarding. 

Here is my personal guarantee to you:

  • You will be able to read each article in this series in less than 60 seconds
  • You will be provided with inspiration and insight
  • You will be given at least one actionable item you can implement immediately

This is meant to be a 101 introduction to social media.  We will paint broad brush strokes over the next 30 days.  It is an overview of social media – meant to stimulate possibilities and inspire action.  I promise to be here with you every step of the way. 

Here is what I request of you:

  • Take the recommended action each day.  Try it out.  See how it works.
  • Comment on each post.  Please engage in the conversation.  Social media is about building relationships.  Tell me what you like, what you don’t like — above all, engage in the conversation. 
  • Are you ready for the journey together?

At the end of the 30 days, I will be publishing an action plan with additional details from the comments you provided.  I will only be sending this action plan to the followers of this blog.  If you want a copy, please subscribe in the subscribe via email box above. PS:  This is only the beginning!  Take a sneak peak at what is coming up!